✈️ Paper clips on a paper plane: the whole packet

✈️ Paper clips on a paper plane · 3rd–8th grade · 1 day of testing · free · 45 minutes a sitting

My days, if the fair is 14 days away

Count back from your fair day and write in each date. Fewer days than this? The jobs share days, in this order; nothing is skipped.

Dates from my teacher

• My question is due
• Testing starts
• My results table and graph are due
• My board is due

In this packet

1. 🗓️ My project plan
2. 💭 My hypothesis
3. 🧺 Change, measure, keep the same
4. 🪜 My steps
5. 📊 My results
6. 📓 My logbook
7. ✅ My conclusion
8. ✂️ Board titles to cut out
9. 🏅 The judge's questions and my certificate

If I change how many paper clips are on the plane's nose, then how far the plane flies will ________________, because _____________________________________________

What I think will happen, in my own words:

4 levels × 3 tries at each = 12 tries in all. If anything you keep the same changes, you won't know which change made the difference.

What I need

• 📄 Paper: a sheet or two, all the same
• 🖇️ Paper clips: 3
• 🩹 Masking tape, to mark lines
• 📏 A tape measure, or a long ruler

Be safe: 👶 Small parts · 🙅 Never at faces

1. Fold one paper dart from a sheet of paper, and press the creases flat.
2. Put a strip of masking tape on the floor as your throwing line.
3. Stand behind the line and throw the plane gently and level, across the room.
4. Measure from the line to where the nose first touched the floor.
5. Write it in your table, then throw it twice more with no clips.
6. Clip one paper clip on the very tip of the nose, and throw it three times.
7. Add a second clip next to the first and throw three times, then add a third clip and throw three times.
8. If the nose gets bent, press it straight again before each throw.
9. Find the mean for each number of clips and draw a line graph.

Write each number in your results table the moment you measure it.

I changed: Clips on the nose   I measured: how far the plane flies (cm)

MY GRAPH (a line graph: clips on the nose along the bottom, cm up the side)

What I noticed: ______________________________________________

Write something every day you work on it, even the days you only gather things. More days? The three-page logbook prints from peabody.kids/science-fair/templates/logbook.

My hypothesis was ☐ right ☐ partly right ☐ not right.

I know because my numbers show:

What surprised me, or what might have gone wrong (7th and up):

Next time I would test:

Idea: Change a second thing: slide one clip back along the body in steps, and graph how far the plane flies for each spot.

1. What made you want to ask this question? Say something like: I wanted to know: does a paper clip make a plane fly farther?
2. What did you think would happen, and why? Say something like: I thought changing how many paper clips are on the plane's nose would change how far the plane flies, and I wrote down why.
3. What did you change, and what did you measure? Say something like: I changed how many paper clips are on the plane's nose (0 clips, 1 clip, 2 clips, 3 clips) and measured how far the plane flies in cm.
4. What did you keep the same, and why does that matter? Say something like: I kept the same folded plane and the same gentle, level throw from the same line the same, so only how many paper clips are on the plane's nose was different.
5. How many times did you test it? Say something like: 3 times at each of my 4 levels, and I found the middle number.
6. What did you find out? Show me in your numbers. Say something like: Look at my table: 0 clips and 3 clips gave different numbers, and here's the pattern.
7. Was your hypothesis right? How do you know? Say something like: My numbers show whether I was right, partly right or not, and I can show you where.
8. Did anything go wrong, or surprise you? Say something like: One try was odd, so I did it again and wrote it in my logbook.
9. If you did it again, what would you change or test next? Say something like: I'd change a second thing: slide one clip back along the body in steps, and graph how far the plane flies for each spot.